Is Social Media Worth It for Your Business? Part 7: And Then There’s AI.
Before I became a Regional Director for Get Ahead, I spent years as a Buying Director for major UK retailers and then ran my own social media agency, with a specialism in Pinterest for business. I’ve used these platforms commercially. I’ve seen what works, what doesn’t, and what’s simply not worth a busy business owner’s time. This series is my honest perspective on each one. No strategy guides. No content calendars. Just a straight answer to the question you’re probably already asking.
Social Media & AI. Help or Hindrance?
I want to close this series with something that isn’t quite a platform verdict – because AI isn’t a platform in the way Facebook or LinkedIn is. You don’t have a profile on it. You don’t build a following there. But it is reshaping every platform we’ve covered in this series, and ignoring it in a series about social media for SMEs would be dishonest.
So here is my honest observation, after watching social media professionally for a long time and closely for the past couple of years.
Something has changed in the feeds. And most people can feel it, even if they haven’t named it.
The 40/40/20 observation
Scroll your LinkedIn feed right now and make an honest assessment of what you’re reading.
My rough estimate – and it’s an observation, not a statistic – is that around 40% of what appears there is straightforwardly AI-generated. Written by a tool, maybe given a light polish, and posted. Another 40% is AI-rewritten: a human had something to say, fed it into a tool, and the result is technically accurate but sounds like nobody in particular. That leaves around 20% that sounds like an actual human being with a genuine point of view, writing in their own voice about something they actually think.
| WHAT I BELIEVE I’M SEEING IN MY LINKEDIN FEED 40% Straightforwardly AI-generated – written by a tool, lightly polished, posted 40% AI-rewritten – a human idea, fed through a tool, now sounds like nobody in particular 20% Traditionally authored – a real person, a genuine voice, something actually worth reading |
That 20% is the most engaged-with content in my feed. By some distance.
Which tells you something important.
What AI is actually doing to social media
The content creation layer is the visible part of this shift. But there’s a less visible layer that matters just as much: engagement.
AI agents are now being used by businesses – and by individuals – to monitor social media feeds, like posts, respond to comments, and simulate the kind of active presence that used to require a human being to actually be there. If the post was written by AI and the response to it was generated by AI, what is that interaction worth? What relationship has been built? What trust has been established?
The feeds are filling up. The rooms are emptying out.
This isn’t a new problem – social media has always had bots, spam accounts, and low-effort content. But the scale has changed, and the quality of the imitation has improved to the point where it takes more effort to notice. The result is a growing sense among people who pay attention that something has quietly drained away from platforms that used to feel genuinely valuable.
The platforms haven’t changed. The humans have left. And for SMEs, that’s both the problem and the opportunity.
Why this matters for SMEs specifically
The businesses most damaged by this shift are the ones who’ve invested in an AI-mediated presence that feels like showing up but isn’t. A posting schedule maintained by a tool. Responses drafted by a tool. Content that covers the right topics in the right format but sounds like it could have come from anyone – because it could have.
None of that builds the thing that actually drives SME growth: trust. And trust, as we’ve discussed across this series, is what shortens sales cycles, generates referrals, and turns a platform presence into a pipeline.
The businesses best placed to benefit from the current moment are the ones that still sound like a real person. Not because authenticity is a virtue in the abstract – but because in a feed that’s increasingly dominated by AI-generated content, a genuine human voice stands out more than it ever has. That’s not a moral argument. It’s a commercial one.
What AI is actually good for in a social media context
I want to be careful not to land this as a blanket rejection of AI tools. That would be dishonest, and it would miss the point.
AI can genuinely help with the parts of social media that are about logistics rather than voice. Generating a list of post ideas when you’re staring at a blank screen. Repurposing a long blog post into shorter social formats. Drafting a caption that you then rewrite in your own words. Scheduling content so that consistency doesn’t depend entirely on you remembering to post on a Tuesday morning.
Used in that way – as a support for your voice rather than a replacement for it – AI tools are genuinely useful for time-poor SME owners. The question worth asking, every time, is: does this still sound like me? Does it say something I actually think? Would I be comfortable if a client read this and knew I’d written it?
If the answer to any of those is no, the tool has done too much of the work.
The connection that runs through this whole series
Looking back across these seven posts, there’s a thread that connects all of them – and the AI question makes it explicit.
The platforms that reward SMEs are the ones where genuine human presence is possible and sustained. Facebook Groups, where you show up and contribute to a community. Pinterest, where you create content that reflects real expertise and real aesthetic sense. TikTok, where you appear on camera as yourself. LinkedIn, where your thinking and your personality are visible over time. Even Reddit, where the community will see through anything that isn’t genuine.
The common denominator isn’t the platform. It’s the showing up. And showing up – really showing up, as a human being with something worth saying – is exactly what AI can’t do on your behalf.
A note on this series
We started seven posts ago with Facebook – the platform everyone had written off – and worked our way through Pinterest, TikTok, X, Reddit, LinkedIn, and now AI.
The question underneath all of it has been the same: is it worth your time? And the honest answer, in every case, has been: it depends on whether you’re prepared to actually show up.
Not to broadcast. Not to automate. Not to be everywhere. But to choose the platforms where your presence means something – and to be genuinely present there.
That takes more than a content calendar. It takes a point of view. A voice. And the consistency to use both, regularly, over time. If you’ve found this series useful and you’d like to think through what it means for your business specifically, I’d love to have that conversation.
A final thought
AI isn’t going away. And it isn’t all bad.
Used well, it can help you show up more consistently – and consistency, as we’ve seen throughout this series, is what the platforms that matter actually reward.
But there’s a difference between using AI to support your voice and using it to replace it.
The feeds are full. The question is whether you’re actually in them. If the answer is yes – really yes, human and present and worth reading – that matters more now than it ever has.
Helping business owners in Oxfordshire work out where and how to show up – and finding the right support to make that sustainable – is exactly what I do. If anything in this series has resonated, I’d love to hear from you.
I’m Vicky McKenna, Regional Director for Get Ahead in Oxfordshire.
About the Author
Next in the series: This is the last in this current series, but I really recommend a recent series by my colleague Kristy Roff that looks at the power of community and connection. Links for the whole series are below:
In Your Corner – The Human Side of Growth
A four-part series exploring why human connection, community, and the right support still define how growing businesses succeed – even in an age of automation.
- In a World of Artificial Intelligence, Human Connection Still Wins the Buying Decision
- Community Is a Commercial Strategy (Not Just a Nice Idea)
- Bespoke Beats Off-the-Shelf: Why Fit Matters More Than Features
- You Don’t Need More Pressure – You Need the Right People in Your Corner
